New Wave Outpost Forum

Some of these large companies need to relearn what customer service is about. I've also dealt with Best Buy, I can sympathize with her.


Best Buy Loses Laptop: Owner Sues... for $54 Million
Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:33PM EST

Don't dismiss Raelyn Campbell as a crackpot. Not yet. Listen to her story, and then decide if she's doing the right thing by asking Best Buy to compensate her to the tune of $54 million for a laptop that went missing when she took it in to Best Buy for repair under the store's own extended warranty.

Like many people, Campbell bought an extended warranty for her laptop when she bought it from Best Buy, and she took advantage of that when the power button broke off after a year. Best Buy accepted the machine for repair and said it would be ready in two to six weeks. But six weeks passed and the computer wasn't ready. After three months of ruthlessly hounding the company, Best Buy finally admitted it couldn't find the machine.

Ultimately, Best Buy offered to pay her $900 for losing the machine... as a gift card. She countered that it had originally cost over $1,100, not to mention all her data that was now gone for good. She demanded $2,100, and Best Buy simply ignored her.

At this point, Campbell was made aware that all her personal data on the machine could lead to a major identity theft issue, though Best Buy never filed their legally required notice that she was at risk. That was the last straw, and she filed suit for $54 million, representing herself. Best Buy has since upped its offer to a total of $4,100 if she withdraws the case. She says she doesn't expect to win, but wants to go to court anyway to force Best Buy to explain how her laptop was lost.

I have to agree that $54 million seems wildly optimistic, but it's amazing to hear how smug Best Buy has been throughout this process. Lowball, "go-away" offers that don't even value property properly, much less the value of the data inside it, are frankly embarrassing, and good for Campbell for making an issue out of it... even if she doesn't ultimately prevail.

<p align="justify">This is why I never buy "extended warranties" from electronic stores and if I ever my computer repaired, I try to find a friend or someone else other than a techie. Best Buy and Circuit City are known to be the worst offenders when it comes to not fulfilling their repair contracts AND for worst customer service.

I believe its always in store and company policy that they always tell you to remove all hard drives when you take your hardware to be repaired. Thats what Ive been told before when I took my laptop for fixing and my Xbox 360 (twice in one year). I do think she should be compensated for the full price of the laptop but not for information stored in the hard drive if shes been told to remove all hard drives

<p align="justify">I recently saw a news report where they went through various repair places with a computer - none of them told the reporters to take out the harddrive.

I could definately understand the mom and pop type of pc repair shops where they dont ask you to remove the HDs since its being fixed in house. Brand chains like Best Buys and Frys where they take laptops and desktop to repaired at somewhere in India and having it exchanged hands so many times leaves HD info in more vulnerable hands. Plus the fact that the laptops and desktop that you get back upon repairation is usually a refurbished unit in stock at the closest manufacturer department

<p align="justify">One of the offenders in the news investigation was a Circuit City, whereupon the reporters saw that the techies were going through all the person's photos and data. None of the big chains said anything about removing the hd. The only place that managed to come unscathed from this report was, ironically, best buy[}:)]

Eek!

I have a good friend who is a computer techie. He says he'd rather take his daughter for an abortion south of the border than take his computer to Best Buy or Circuit City.

"Man is not a rational animal, he is a rationalizing animal." ~Robert Heinlein